


remember.

by MackaroonieAndCheese



Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Karl Forgets, Karlnapity, L'mamburg, M/M, Memory Loss, Multi, Slight Cursing, Some panicking, Time Travel, Wholesome, angsty angst, its sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-10
Updated: 2021-02-10
Packaged: 2021-03-16 18:27:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,570
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29336775
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MackaroonieAndCheese/pseuds/MackaroonieAndCheese
Summary: Karl returns to the DreamSMP after time-traveling again and he's forgotten everyone and every place on the DreamSMP. Sapnap and Quackity come by and tries to help him remember anything he can.
Relationships: Alexis | Quackity/Karl Jacobs, Alexis | Quackity/Karl Jacobs/Sapnap, Alexis | Quackity/Sapnap, Karl Jacobs/Sapnap, Karlnapity - Relationship
Comments: 2
Kudos: 169





	remember.

**Author's Note:**

> I haven't written fanfics in so long, so if this was bad I apologize in advance. enjoy!

Time-travel is a fickle thing. It’s always a different condition for everyone. Don’t touch anything or you’ll stop existing or you’ll mess up the timeline. Maybe even by time-travelling you lose yourself every time you do it. Your sanity? Maybe even your own memory. That does seem to be the case for this man. A man so insistent on fixing history, doing anything he can to make sure this current timeline is right. Making sure the timeline his fiances are in is right.

The man steps out of the portal, just coming back from another jump. He holds his head, stumbling a bit. “I can’t forget. I can’t forget. I can’t forget.” he repeats as he walks up to the ladder and climbs up it, opening the trapdoor and closing it as he gets up.. He sees the many framed posters and signed books spread across the walls and tables. In the opposite corner of the room from the trapdoor he came from is a single chest.

He opens it and sees multiple signed books titled “Diary” followed by what number it is, then quickly shuts the chest and grabs one of the unused books and starts to write down everything that happened in his most recent jump. He writes down everything he can remember then signs the book. Placing the signed book and the poster where an empty spot was. He knew where he was, but not people from where he was. He’s in his archive, just under the library he made.

He presses a button and exits his archives room, entering his library. “I’m in my library… but where am I? Where was this library in?” he mutters quietly and thinks for a moment. "Right. The DreamSMP… but who's Dream?"

“Karl!” a voice calls from outside the library door, accompanied by loud knocks. “Are you in there? Sapnap said you haven’t left the library since last night. We’ve been waiting for you to come back to El Rapids all night. We got worried so we decided to come by.”

“Karl? Are you in there?” another voice calls out followed by more knocking.

The man that stands in the hidden entrance of his library looks down at himself. “Am I Karl? Maybe I am… I can’t remember. Why can’t I remember… people?”

“Karl! You’re here!” the man bursts in, a wide and relieved smile on his face. His beanie nearly falls off as he quickly grabs Karl and embraces him. He lets out a gasp and looks at the two men, confused. Trying hard to recall who these people were to him.

Karl pushes away the man who was hugging him. “Sorry, I just need space uhm…” his voice trails off, trying to remember any name at all.

“Are you alright?” Karl could piece together that this must’ve been Sapnap with the flame on his t-shirt based on the conversation earlier.

Karl paces around the small library and points at Sapnap, “You’re Sapnap right?” he asks.

Sapnap looks at him confused and laughs, “You’re joking right? The three of us have been engaged for a while now, the wedding is coming up in two months and all that. Did you hit your head or something?”

“Or something..” Karl says under his breath and quickly says “I- I mean yeah! I think I did. My memory is being a little fuzzy. I mean I have a rough idea of where I am but I can’t… remember people. My head feels fine though, just… a fuzzy memory.”

“Hold on for a moment, uhm Quackity can we talk for a moment?” Sapnap asks the other man- Quackity and he nods and they step outside for a moment.

Karl feels his chest tighten, confused and frustrated he can’t remember who anyone is. But he remembers that he can’t tell anyone about The Inbetween, where he’s been this whole time, when he’s been travelling to, or what he’s doing this all for. He can’t remember who these two are but there’s part of him that makes him feel somewhat at ease when looking at them. “Wait… engaged? These are my fiancés?”

The two men come back and look at him concerned, “Why don’t the three of us walk around the SMP, and we can end this day back in El Rapids. Maybe that’ll help.” Quackity says, a sad look on his face. “After all that we can get your head checked right after and make some healing pots to help in case.”

“Should we ask him where he’s been every night?” Sapnap whispers and Quackity just shakes his head.

“He won’t tell us, you know that.” Quackity says and grabs Karl’s hand, “Alright, time to journey the fuck around the SMP and maybe that’ll help one way or another. We’ll even try talking about everything you need to remember!”

Quackity’s demeanor shifts completely in an instant. His previously sad expression is overtaken by a big smile and a smug look. “To the L’manhole!” he exclaims and runs outside, his hand gripping onto Karl’s wrist tightly.

Karl smiles a bit, being glad he gets to have a break before he’s thrown into another point in time. He doesn’t remember these people but he remembers this feeling. A warmth and peace he hasn’t felt in so long. In contrast to the cold death he has faced the past few jumps. Sapnap follows them, uncertain how well this would all work out.

The three of them slows down and walks towards the L’manhole, and Karl starts to feel a sense of unease and anxiety. He remembers this. He couldn’t prevent this. The warm feeling disappeared and Karl pulled his wrist back from Quackity. He knew that this was how L’manburg would fall and he couldn’t do anything to stop it. Here he is, seeing it reduced to nothing more than a crater with a shadow of a memory.

“Karl?” Sapnap’s voice was faint to Karl. He couldn’t focus on Sapnap’s voice, he’s focused on thinking about the many other possible ways he could’ve prevented this from happening. A timeline where people won’t feel terrible about… this. He vaguely remembers wanting to prevent this ending for L’manburg for someone… for Quackity…?

“Calm down. Karl, please. I’m sorry. I didn’t even know you cared this much about L’manburg.” Quackity says, placing a hand on Karl’s shoulder and rubbing slightly, trying to calm him down.

“I prevented it the first time… but I couldn’t save this…” he mutters to himself, making sure the others don’t hear him. He tenses up when he feels the hand on his shoulder. He needs to get himself together, he’s aware of that much. He can’t let anything slip. With a few deep breaths, he composes himself and wipes off any sweat. “I- sorry. I just… somehow this just feels so emotional and it just got me, y’know?”

Sapnap and Quackity quickly pull Karl into a hug. “God I’m sorry, I wasn’t thinking. I should’ve just brought you to El Rapids immediately.” Quackity quickly says, feeling regretful seeing Karl like this.

“No it’s alright… you’re just trying to help me out. I hit my head after all, I can remember that much at least.” he says to the both of them, hugging them back. “Let’s just move on, yeah?”

“Yeah, I’ll pick the next place we visit instead, that alright Quackity?” Sapnap asks as they all pull away from the hug. "It should be a bit better, hopefully." Sapnap was the one to grab Karl's hand this time and start guiding them away from former L'manburg. "It'll take a while to get there but it'll be worth it. I think of that as the foundation of El Rapids and us.”

The three walk along the wooden path, walking away from the ruins of what could’ve been saved and walk by multiple structures other people had built. Then they come by a museum just before what looked like a church.

“Oh, we can make a pit stop here. Eret made this museum which holds a lot of old things that’s lost to memory now.” Sapnap eagerly says and they make their way to the large museum.

In the middle lies a van with a statue of a flaming hotdog on top of it. At the very back was a large map with a top down view of the entire place. The L’manhole before it was blown up. The museum they’re in right now, and many other structures Karl can’t clearly remember.

He didn’t notice it the first time but to the side of the entrance was a small open room that had walls made of blackstone. The sign in front reads “Final Control Room”. There was another room a bit aways from the Final Control Room, the walls made of stone and andesite. There’s writings covering the walls, a single chair in the middle of the small room, and a single button in front of the chair.

Here it comes again, the feeling where a pit is forming like when he looked at the L’manhole. He recognizes this, he took note of this in one of his diaries. He destroyed the button the first time and thought that he had prevented the explosion. But it happened anyway.

“Can we go? I… I don’t like the feeling I’m getting looking at this.” Karl says, tugging on Sapnap’s shirt.

“This was the uh… the “Button Room”. The one where Wilbur… decided it was over for him and uh… he blew up L’manburg after taking Schlatt down. None of us knew why he went through with it. We just knew that he was going crazy. But… but we never did anything about it.” Quackity explains sadly, looking at the button room.

“Let’s just move on yeah?” Sapnap says, putting his arms around both Quackity and Karl. “No more of this sad shit. We’re trying to help Karl remember alright?”

They start to walk out of the museum, but Karl can’t help but just feel terrible. Why was he the one chosen to do this? To be thrusted into different points in time to try and understand the current timeline. He can’t remember old friends. Hell, he can’t even remember the people he’s engaged to. If he can’t remember, what’s the point of all this?

He shakes his head slightly, taking another deep breath, and finally calming himself down again. “Yeah, let’s keep going.” he says.

Sapnap smiles and they all walk hand-in-hand, down the path again. Quackity explains the Prime Church as they pass by it. One doesn’t need to be religious to pray in the Prime Church. Everyone goes there when they feel like they need the luck or some feeling of guidance.

They get closer to one end of the wooden path which leads to a castle. That had multiple beacons behind the entrance. This also gave Karl a familiar feeling, freedom and pain.

“This is Eret’s castle.” Sapnap says, looking a bit peeved. Karl could see he seemed pissed, but can’t seem to pinpoint why. Something eventful happened here, of course, but it wasn’t as striking as seeing the Button Room and the L’manhole.

“You, Sapnap, and George protested against Eret, saying George was the rightful king of the Greater DreamSMP. You even risked a life just for El Rapids to be able to exist as their own independent place.” Quackity explained looking at the entrance with a small smile on his face.

Karl looked at his left wrist in small letters that read ‘Lives’, with two red hearts and one white one. “I risked one of my lives? But why? I don’t understand.” he asks. He’s lost his life when leaving a timeline before but it never ended up with losing an actual life.

“Well, because of El Rapids. But that was months ago now, and it’s just a part of our history that we will hopefully tell one day.” Sapnap says, holding Karl’s hand. “Let’s go home and just spend time together yeah? We have an album at home you can look through and surely that’ll help you remember.”

Karl wanted to stay longer by Eret’s castle, sitting on the wooden path and just trying to remember everything about the lands of the DreamSMP. But he wanted to spend as much time as he can with his fiancés before being forced to jump into another point in time again. So he did. He spends the rest of the day with the two of them at El Rapids, laughing and chatting up as much as they could.

Until night comes by and Sapnap and Quackity fall asleep, Karl pretends to sleep with them. Making sure him slipping out won’t be too obvious. He steps out of the room and looks back at them for a moment, a sinking feeling forming in him. He can’t remember any moment he had with them, but the day he just had was all he needed to be able to remember who they were to him.

“I’m sorry.” Karl whispers and makes his way out of El Rapids, holding onto a splash potion of invisibility he had made beforehand in case anyone were to see him. Halfway down El Rapids he hears someone calling his name.

“Karl? Where are you going?” someone asks.

Karl freezes in place and turns around to see Quackity. He was careful to make sure none of them woke up so that he wouldn’t have to let them feel hurt that he just went and disappeared again. “Quackity I…” his voice trails off. “I was just going somewhere for the night. I’ll be back in the morning. Like always.”

“No. Please just stay here. With us. I don’t know what the hell you’re up to every night and where you’re going. Or why the hell you’ve suddenly forgotten us and everywhere in this damned place. I won’t question it but please just stay here.” he pleads to Karl, stepping closer towards him.

“I have to go. I’ll be back in the morning.” he says again and starts to run away from El Rapids. Running as fast as he can back to his library. He splashes the potion on himself for good measure.

He hadn’t even realized it until he reached his library, but he was crying. Why did it hurt so much? He could barely remember them. But they gave him the peace he wished he always had instead of always having to go back or forward in time. He wipes his tears away and makes his way down to the hidden part of his library, opening the chest and taking out one of the empty books.

_You have to **remember** at least Sapnap and Quackity. Forget everyone else. At least never forget about them. The warmth they gave. The peace they give you. Everything else may crumble and deteriorate, but at the end of the day… they’ll always be there for you. No matter what time it is. At least **remember** them._

Karl finishes writing in the book, unsure if he’s written everything down that he doesn’t wanna forget. He signs the book and titles it ‘ **remember.** ’. He carefully places the book back inside the chest and makes his way deeper into the basement and stares as the portal he stepped out of starts to glow brightly yet again.

“I’m sorry… I’ll remember next time.”

Karl steps into the portal and unwillingly forgets them again.


End file.
